Book Review, Free Heel Skiing by Paul Parker

How to ski? That timeless subject has inspired literature back more than a century. Free Heel Skiing, by Paul Parker, is a more recent addition to the genre. As the title implies, the book focuses on the relatively recent unearthing, in North America, of "nordic downhill" or "telemark" ski technique.

Past books on free-heel skiing have focused on survival turns, or assumed the reader had a background in alpine skiing. Parker goes farther. Via a brief study of ski history, he infers that the rift between Nordic and alpine ski technique is rapidly shrinking. No problem there; just watch most free-heel skiers, they frequently make as many parallel as telemark turns. He than goes on to relate a series of technique tips -- with a marked focus on alpine technique. As a result, Free-Heel Skiing brings free-heel and latched-heel skiing into the same room, and the same bed.

But, anytime you narrow a "sportisophical" rift, you run the risk of loosing identity. Indeed, it's possible that part of telemark skiing's popularity is that it sets you apart from the crowd. Ever cut a tele under a ski lift, just to wow the tourists? Parker teeters on the edge of that pit by touting the virtues of doing telemark turns, while at the same time emphasizing many ski techniques that work as well -- or better -- with a fixed heel. For me, his telemark arguments go too far. For example, he says the telemark is the best free-heel turn for deep powder -- while many free heel skiers I know will beg to differ. He claims the turn has superior for and aft stability -- if that is so, why do you see so many double hinged forward face plants? Finally, I severely disagree with his premise that the telemark is better with a loaded pack. I can't tele with a heavy pack, but even when I'm fat and out-of-shape, I can smile my way through a chain of latched heel crud or powder turns.

So on to doing alpine turns with free heels, which is a big part of what this book is about. To begin, Paul takes you through a brief introduction to the wedge. It is the best introduction I have ever read -- I recommend it to any novice. The on to your basic telemark intro and a a basic learning sequence that is well known to any classically taught parallel skier, and works fine for free heelers as well.

After a brief digression into ski tuning (nothing new here), Parker digs into the P-tex with "Advanced Free Heel Techniques." Here, you can tell by the superb tips just how hard he has labored to put into words what makes a good skier function. One example is his hints about poling, with an emphasis on hand movements that is especially adroit.

In another section Parker covers powder, crud, and moguls. The powder overview is useful. But here, things get confused by trying to cover telemark and parallel turns in the same paragraphs. He then moves on to crud snow; the bane of many a backcountry skier. I assumed Parker would cover this in depth. Sadly, Parker glosses over the jump turn for handling crud, and he ignores less strenuous and more graceful techniques like the rebound turn. But a gold star to Parker for one comment on crud skiing, "make one turn, regain your composure in a traverse, than make another". In other words, no need for linked falls.

After several reads, my gut feeling about Free-Heel Skiing was that I wanted more: more detail, more varied techniques, more on equipment. But even with those shortcomings one thing about this book works for me; the sharing. Parker uses small doses of first person prose to link his didactic segments. His tales of skiing hither and yon made me drip with ski fever sweat -- I ran over to the ski shop and bought a new pair of planks. You read this stuff, and all criticism aside, you know the guy loves to ski. You make some of that passion your own, and before you know it, you get bits and pieces of wisdom as well. Those bits and pieces add up no matter what gear you choose. Thank you Paul.

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